


When I'm With You, I Don't Need No Dollars

by eomatom



Category: ASTRO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, i'm sorry if this is rlly odd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 03:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15765465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eomatom/pseuds/eomatom
Summary: Soulmate AU where the banks know it all, and you pay for your soulmate's stuff and they pay for yours; until you find each other.Or, Dongmin's a poor college student who has a soulmate who spends money at a gay bar faster than he can earn





	When I'm With You, I Don't Need No Dollars

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So this is my first ever fic on this site, it's not very long but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

It's hard to live this life, Dongmin thinks. It's even harder to know that your mystery soulmate eats like a beast, he has never felt poorer. Cliche as it sounds, Dongmin is a college student working a part time job on the side so he'll have extra cash to keep but every time that money goes into his bank account, he knows he's probably not getting it back. 

The only plus side, is that this transaction goes two ways and what Dongmin gives, he'll take. Of course, he's not one to spend recklessly due to his instinct to save (thanks to a certain someone). So all the damage to his soulmate's bank balance happens when he's in the mood for new shoes, or when he wants to get his best friends some top-notch birthday gifts because what can he say, he's an A class bro. 

There are days when he really wants to know how his soulmate looks like or what his soulmate does so he keeps an eye on his billing lists, taking note of what his soulmate spends on and where. Two things he's sure of is that his soulmate is a guy, and he lives in the same bustling Seoul Dongmin lives in. If the bill from the gay club he passes by regularly gives anything away. 

Don't get him wrong though, Dongmin is indeed, gay as fuck. He's just not one for clubbing.

Naturally, he's curious about the dude he's fated to spend the rest of his life with if he can find him; that is. It doesn't help that everyone in his friendship group is attached. 

Myungjun had always known Jinwoo, all it took was a foiled birthday surprise for them to realise they were meant for each other. Minhyuk and Sanha on the other hand, took years of meaningless purchases and hours of bird watching to happen.

"He did it. Again." Dongmin exclaims, exasperated as he drops his lunch tray on the table. "It's the third time this week and I don't think I can keep up, his drinks are fucking expensive." It's a Thursday afternoon and Dongmin had just left class to find that his beloved had spent a week's worth of salary on fancy drinks in that same gay club.

Myungjun looks up from his food and sighs turning to Jinwoo and prompting him to start his lecture. "Okay so, here's what you're going to do. You're going to go to that club. Every night and spend a shit load of money. He's bound to notice and stop. Who knows you might even get your thirsty ass some action while you're at it." Sniggering, Myungjun pulls his hand up for a fist bump while Dongmin sends them death glares across the table. 

Minhyuk, who's been pretty quiet this whole time decides to speak up. "Maybe you should, I don't know, buy stuff for yourself more often and then look super hot so when he comes looking for you he’ll I don’t know… fall at your feet?"

Dongmin likes to believe that his life isn't one cheap chick flick, but he hasn't been looking too hot these few days and new clothes really don't sound like a bad idea. 

That's how he finds himself at the biggest luxury mall in town, cruising through stores searching for the perfect man satchel (purse). Shopping is tiring, so he treats himself to a well deserved overpriced ass cup of coffee. While he's there, he might as well work on his dissertation that was due in a month.

Weeks pass and Dongmin falls into a weekly routine of heading to the mall on Thursdays to pick up new additions to his increasingly expensive wardrobe. 

By the fourth month, Dongmin has more or less run out of things he wanted to get without standing out looking like a snobby elite prick. One thing that's changed is the presence of A Fine Specimen™ always sneaking glances at random customers in the store. He's almost always there when Dongmin steps into the cafe and it's never occurred to him that it was anything to be suspicious of. 

His friends also know about the mystery stalker, as “there’ll be no secrets in this bro circle” put eloquently by Myungjun. "You should just hit him up. He sounds single and you're single so that's definitely going to work out." Minhyuk says with a suggestive wink. Dongmin stays silent as he contemplates his options as he weighs the pros and cons in his head. He decides to go for it anyway because what's the worst that could happen right?

Murphy’s Law is a bitch as it turns out. Said cute boy wasn't there at the coffee shop the next time Dongmin went. He found it kind of strange and was slightly worried for the hot stranger but didn't dwell on it too much. After all, he didn't lose anything and probably avoided the possibility of rejection.

On another note, his soulmate is still a frequent customer at the club and Dongmin suspects he might be buying drinks for anyone and everyone. His bank balance has never been sadder than this. 

It was after a particularly gruelling 8 hour shift in the stock room when Dongmin decided that intervention was needed. He picked up his phone and dialled for Jinwoo, paused and then dialled for Minhyuk instead. He was going to a club, not a gym. 

That's how he finds himself on the floor of his room, surrounded by all his clothes with Minhyuk and Sanha perched on his bed looking amused beyond measure. "Hyung. Stop. The black skinnies are the ones I'm telling you. They make you look like you actually have a nice ass" Minhyuk quips, which earns him a glare from Dongmin and Sanha just cackles.

The torture doesn't just stop there. He's had his eyes pried open, his hair pulled in different directions, all in the name of looking "fuckable". At the end of it all, Dongmin almost couldn't recognise himself. His once innocent pretty face was transformed into one of a femme fatale, minus the femme. 

Fast forward half an hour, he finds himself facing the bouncers of the gay club on his solo mission to hunt down his money sucking soulmate. He hands his identification over to the bouncers while flashing the most charming smile he could muster while inwardly cursing his good for nothing friends who ditched him to stay home. Clubs were also not their thing. 

He's taken a grand total of 5 steps into the club and he's already half determined to bail. The heavy bass of the music makes his head pound and the sight of the dance floor makes him want to hurl. It's body on body and there doesn't seem like there's space for him to even breathe. 

So, he sticks close to the bar area to avoid the congregation of horny men on the dance floor, and strikes up a conversation with the bartender. He asks about his day, about his boyfriend back at home, about the latest fashion. They talk for a while and he's had so many drinks his vision's started to swim.

He almost forgets his purpose at the club until another person joins him at the bar, four hours into his club escapade. "Hey Jungie, the usual" the stranger says with a sigh. Dongmin turns towards the voice and gets the shock of his life. Surprise surprise, it's cute boy from the cafe. All intoxicated Dongmin could do was stand there and gape at the hunk of a man in front of him. He wasn’t dressed to impress like Dongmin was, but his low V neck showed off more than enough of his collarbones for Dongmin to start thirsting. And oh god, those shoulders.

The bartender, Jung, shakes his head and bends down to grab a stool before reaching for a bottle of expensive liquor sitting on the top shelf. "Whoever's paying for you is going to be fucking pissed, Bin. Actually, fuck that. You're pissing me off I'm running low on this baby because of you." 

"Ha. You love me don't even deny it." Bin turns to Dongmin, gives him a once over and smiles sweetly at Jung. "Get this cutie here one too." Jung rolls his eyes and curses under his breath, "bastard should be spending money on his soulmate but he's fucking spending poor dudes money every week on one night stands?" 

At this point, Dongmin is more than just confused but he's also pretty piss ass drunk. That means the verbal filters are off and there's nothing stopping him when he all but blurts "Hey can I get your number?" complete with a wide grin. 

Bin looked taken aback but that expression morphed back into his confident facade in a matter of seconds. He stretches his hand out to Dongmin with a small smirk on his face and Dongmin complies, gingerly placing the device into the palm of his hands. 

He doesn't see the name under which the number is saved when he takes his phone back from Bin. Which was a bad move on his part because come next morning, he wakes up with a bad hangover and no idea what his potential soulmate’s contact number is. 

Resigned, Dongmin drops his phone at the side and decides to take the easy way out of his predicament and just skip school. Since he's already bedridden, he thought he might as well forage through his contacts to search for that one outlier. Alas, it wasn't hard because he doesn't remember saving anyone's number under "call me". 

It took him several rounds of back and forth with himself before he decided to put down his phone and save the task of contacting Bin for another day. After all, what if he was jumping to the wrong conclusions and Bin was in fact, taken. Jung wasn’t very clear about whether Bin had actually found his soulmate or not.

"I don't know how you're at the top of your class when you're this stupid" Jinwoo muses a couple of days later when they meet again for lunch. Dongmin plays nervously with his fingers unsure of how to explain himself without sounding like a wimp. "I'll text him when there's a need guys relax I know what I'm doing." He does not, in fact, know what he's doing. 

The last straw came when he received a warning from the bank, informing him that his bank balance has hit double digits. He all but cussed out loud, startling the old lady sipping on her tea in the corner of the cafe. He smiled sheepishly and muttered an apology as he turns back, face flaming. 

He counted down the minutes leading up to the end of his shift as he serves customers feeling more and more unsettled. The minute the clock struck 10, he made a beeline for the back room and whipped out his phone, and calling "call me". 

Upon the third ring, Dongmin was greeted by the sounds of deep bass coming from the other end of the line. "Bro can you call back later, I'm kind of occupied right now," Bin yelled over the music. Dongmin rolled his eyes, annoyed. "No, can you get out of the club like now and get your shit together?"

"Hey honey, whoever you are, I'll call you back later okay?" With that, Bin hung up on an appalled Dongmin. It didn't occur to him that this seemingly attractive man would be a major asshole on top of being a serial flirt.

Dongmin didn't have the patience to wait for Bin to call back, so he picked up his phone at the two hour mark and dialled his number once again. 

"What's up" Bin slurred. Dongmin ran his hand through his hand and signed "meet me at the cafe, you know the one you always go to at the mall? Yeah, that one, tomorrow at noon." It was pretty clear that Bin was in no shape to be talking rationally so Dongmin had no choice but to postpone their meeting to the next day. He was also pretty sure that Bin would forget ever having this conversation so he dropped him a text with the location and time just to play it safe.

The following 12 hours or so was absolutely nerve wrecking for Dongmin; he didn’t want to be the one to read the signs wrongly and end up accusing a stranger of things he didn’t do. Maybe this whole thing with Bin was a huge coincidence and his soulmate was still at large. A small (large) part of him hoped that Bin was indeed his soulmate because as much as he was an asshole, he was also wildly attractive to anyone with eyes.

Dongmin sat at the table closest to the door, hands around his paper cup full of already lukewarm coffee, head snapping to the door every time he hears it open. It’s 11.57pm and he’s never felt this jittery. The coffee wasn’t helping to calm his nerves very much, if anything he felt more on edge. 

Time ticked away slowly and still no sign of Bin. Dongmin was ready to pack up his things and go one and a half hours into the waiting game but it was then Bin stepped in looking absolutely dishevelled. He ran a hand through his unkempt hand as he saw Dongmin staring at him from where he was seated, frozen. With a lazy smile, he sauntered over to the table and sat himself down opposite Dongmin. “Hey I remember you! You’re the one who texted me right? I don’t think I got your name the previous time,” Bin chirped.

Dongmin gaped at his bright demeanour and mumbled “Dongmin, Lee Dongmin” and diverted his gaze from Bin’s. Had the AC stopped? The cafe suddenly felt like it was heating up. But before Dongmin got too carried away, he slammed his hand on the table effectively startling them both as well as the people sitting around them. He apologised sheepishly and turned his attention back to Bin.

“I need to see your bank statements.” He demanded with his hands outstretched. Bin’s smile dropped from his face and his expression morphed into one of disbelief. “I don’t think that’s something you ask strangers, right sweetheart? No way.” He leaned back and crossed his arms, feeling more puzzled than ever. 

Dongmin scoffed, pulled up his own bank statement and shoved it in front of Bin’s face. “If you won’t then I will. This look familiar?” Bin’s eyes widened at the realisation and he ran his hand through his hair in shock. “It was you this whole time? The one who buys expensive stuff every week? I’m actually really hurt you know? I’m running out of savings because of you” Bin pouts.

Dongmin had to resist the urge to throw his phone at Bin as he all but shrieks “You? Hurt? You really don’t have any guilt, do you? What about all the times you spend almost all of my money at that club?” Bin chuckles and wipes an imaginary tear from his eye, “Are we really having our first couple fight over our expenses? Anyway, would you like to go on a date with me?” Dongmin nods hesitantly, unable to say much more. “Great I’ll text you!” Bin says as he swings out of the door. 

For some reason, Dongmin doesn’t tell his friends about Bin being his soulmate as he doesn’t want to subject Bin to their wrath just yet. But he does text Bin almost constantly from the moment he was out of his sight at the cafe. And while his first impression of Bin was that he was an asshole, he learns that Bin is actually really sweet and funny, not to mention pretty smart. He also learns that Bin is only a year his junior and is currently studying in one of the city’s top colleges. It seems that Bin is also a scheming bastard as a large portion of the cash that he “spent” at the bar was sitting safely at his home, untouched. Dongmin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that knowledge.

Although Bin did say he wanted to take Dongmin out on a date, they were both pretty busy with their lives in the weeks following that so they settled with texting each other good night messages every night, reminding each other to get ample rest, waking up to each other’s voice over the phone, and quick video calls whenever they had time to spare. Bin had stopped frequenting the gay bar now that he had Dongmin to accompany every night (“Thank heavens”, Dongmin thought). 

They had easily fallen into a rhythm where they’d spend every free moment talking to each other and Dongmin felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders; worrying about his soulmate had taken a greater toll on him than he’d thought. 

His friends had also noticed the change in his demeanour. “You look unnaturally smiley today, what’s up?” Sanha asked as he set his tray down on the table one day during lunch. Dongmin pressed his lips together and tried to suppress his grin, “not much, I promise.” Of course, no one bought that but they decided to drop the topic as Myungjun sighed dramatically and started to lament about his strict lecturer.

It took Dongmin and Bin three weeks to decide on when to have their date because Bin wanted to have Dongmin to himself for the whole day. So when that Sunday finally came, Dongmin was filled with so much excitement he could barely sleep a wink. Neither could Bin apparently since they stayed up talking until the sun came up. 

That morning, Dongmin found himself skipping to the park, heart palpitating in anticipation. He sat himself in front of the big water fountain, watching the children having fun around it while waiting. He was early after all. 

He only snapped out of his daze when someone walked into his line of sight, holding a ridiculously large bouquet of spring flowers. Bin’s smile was blinding against the clear blue sky as he handed the bouquet to Dongmin and covered his hands with his own. “I know we haven’t known each other for that long a period of time, but everything just feels right with you, you know? We’re already soulmates and that’s cool but Lee Dongmin, would you be my boyfriend?” 

Dongmin felt himself match Bin’s grin as he nodded and threw his arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. They took it slow, savouring the taste of each other's lips for the first time as their surroundings blurred. Dongmin whined when Bin pulled away, panting slightly. He wanted more, needed more, but it didn’t matter because they had so much time for that later on. But first, they had to go on their date.

Dongmin didn’t know how he got so lucky; sure their first meeting wasn’t the best, and the way they found each other was less than conventional but Dongmin knew he was going to be set for life. After all, he didn’t just find a soulmate; he found his best friend.

(“I fucking knew it, pay up losers” Jinwoo hollered when Dongmin told his friends about Bin a few dates later)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for getting to the end of this shitshow!! I really really appreciate y'all.


End file.
